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The Lord Ruler's perfect capital city, Luthadel, is doing the impossible: rebelling. Skaa half-breeds are being taught the power of Allomancy, something that the Lord Ruler's obligators said only existed in the nobility. The enslaved skaa, with their murderous benefactor, now fight back against a living god's oppression.

So, the Inquisition was formed. The nobles begin to fear assassination from all sides. The times of nobility Mistborn killing each other are over. The Steel Inquisitors look for aristocrat traitors and insurgent skaa, and the skaa try with all their strength to merely survive. The Lord Ruler's perfect Final Empire is slowly devolving into chaos.

Adrianne stands at about 5’7” with a slender build and hardly any curves to speak of. She has smooth, fair skin, dark brown eyes, and a head full of thick, wild brown hair that falls to the middle of her back in tight, spiraling curls. Her facial features are refined and expressive, displaying a wide range of emotions from behind a carefully maintained, ofttimes semi-transparent veil of calm and composure.

Her clothing is the height of Klessium fashion, eschewing an abundance of such overt ornamentations as lace, beading, or embroidery in favor of rich fabrics, bold lines and styized cuts that strike an artful balance between classic and avant garde. Adrianne particularly prefers cuts that emphasize what little figure she has, such as gowns and ensembles that have structure through the bodice and flare out dramatically at the waist. Like other Klessium noblewomen, when she chooses to wear jewelry, it is either classic, understated items during the day or spectacular statement pieces at night. Her wardrobe contains a wide variety of clothing - from conservative business ensembles to comfortable day dresses to breathtaking ballgowns, and she takes pride in always choosing the best outfit for any given situation.

She takes great care, of course, to always appear immaculate: her clothes are neatly pressed and perfectly arranged at all times, with nary a wrinkle and not so much as a single thread or button out of place. She wears only enough makeup to enhance her natural features - never more - and though a few flyaway curls always manage to escape, she keeps her hair artfully pinned up in a stylish updo.

As both a Lady of high station and a skilled duelist, Adrianne moves with a practiced, confident grace. Every movement, every gesture, is at once delicate and deliberate, refined but not overly masculine or feminine.

Adrianne Entrone is, and always has been, an independent, strong-minded, passionate woman with a determined stubborn streak and a bit of a temper. Fiercely intelligent and highly capable, she is quick to analyze the information at hand and form an opinion, which she will adamantly defend until proven wrong, though how willingly or grudgingly she will admit it depends entirely on who is doing the proving. She has developed a thick skin thanks to the way her father raised her, though there are certain areas in which she’s still quite sensitive - like the assumption by some individuals that women can’t do a man’s job just because they’re women. She’s become rather good at hiding it, though. Usually.

Growing up as a woman attempting to live in a man’s world has also taught her the importance of confidence. She knows her own ability, and is acutely aware of just how well she could really do if given the chance. Combined with her strongheadedness, this has the potential to make her a force to be reckoned with in the business world, and she’s already started to make a name for herself around Klessium’s boardrooms and negotiating tables.

As beneficial as her strong force of personality can be, though, it is very much a double-edged sword. While the ability to control her temper in public was drilled into her at a young age, Adrianne’s private life is often volatile, her personal relationships suffering at the hands of her tempestuous personality. It takes a great deal of patience to maintain a long-term relationship with her, and a tremendous amount of time and mutual trust to get her to truly let her defenses down and open up to anyone.

Once those walls are down, though, anyone privy to her inner self will find a loving, loyal, and still quite passionate companion who desperately wants someone to believe in her. After all, proving yourself against a world of naysayers can be quite lonely, and no matter how confident and capable you are, it can be draining to constantly hear that you’re inherently unable to do what you love.

Special Skills: Logistics, running a business, leadership, dueling

Strengths: Adrianne is great with people, and is a fantastic leader. She knows her trade inside and out, and has the guts to do whatever she needs to do to get the job done. She is confident, strong-willed, and able to follow through with her promises (and threats).

Weaknesses: As a woman in the male-dominated world of business, Adrianne is facing an uphill battle. Not only does her father's will legally prevent her from ever taking any actual legitimate control over her house, she is married to a misogynistic husband and faces a world of colleagues who will, more often than not, look down on her because of her gender. And while excellent and business and logistics, she is not quite as stellar at things like finance and accounting. She is also somewhat more susceptible to Soothing and Rioting than many people; though she can keep her head enough to remain in control of herself, emotional manipulation can muddle her thoughts and threaten to disrupt her ability to do her job. In these instances, she is forced to rely on the husband she dislikes and distrusts for the good of her house.

Born in the year 893 to Osmond and Priscilla Entrone, Adrianne was destined to fight an uphill battle from the very beginning. Her parents, who had tried so hard to conceive a child, were extremely disappointed that a male heir had not been born, and became even more embittered when they failed to have any other children.

Adrianne, however, didn't care that only boys were supposed to learn business. And she most certainly did not care that her house desired only male heirs, not female. She was interested in her house's business, and she was the Lord's only child, and that was that. Even at a young age, despite her parents' efforts to mold her into a proper young lady and suitable future bride, she was standing up for herself and what she saw as her birthright. She had seen the other noble children in Klessium, after all, and all the other house lords' only children were regarded as heirs (that she knew of, anyways), and the first sons especially were treated like the golden treasures of their families. Why shouldn't she have what they had?

Oh, she took to the lessons they did give her well enough – despite that fiery stubborn streak, Adrianne did very well learning etiquette and politics, and she didn't even mind learning it. After all, all the other heirs needed to learn those things too, so she would as well. She failed to Snap, which frustrated her when she was old enough to know what that meant, but her parents had conflicting emotions about the matter: Allomancers were always useful, even just to sweeten a marriage deal, but they certainly didn't need to give Adrianne more ways to be a handful. She was accomplishing that perfectly well already.

Her childhood was an odd mixture of girlishness and a somewhat stubborn tomboyish streak. She loved pretty dresses and learning to dance and having tea with her dolls, but she also loved clambering all over Klessium to find pretty rocks, which she would show her father, hoping to show him how interested she was in the family business. She was even taught to duel – it was the first concession she had ever coerced her father into making. Klessium was a rough place, after all, she had argued; even a future gentlewoman needed to be able to defend herself should the situation arise. She was strictly forbidden from participating in duels with men, but a few discreet queries gained her some suitable female sparring partners around her age. It was one of the best things about living in Klessium, Adrianne thought: surely it was easier to find dueling noblewomen in Klessium than anywhere else she could possibly think of. Even though she had never left the Eastern Dominance, she was sure it must be so.

She had always believed in her right as her father's heir, but nothing cemented that more firmly in her mind than when the day she learned about Aveline Sureau.

She was a preteen then, though she can't remember her exact age at this point, and was learning from her politics tutor the who's-who of House Entrone's most important allies. Aveline was only a couple years younger than Adrianne herself, had been taught business from an early age, and was regarded by all as the rightful and legal heir of House Sureau.

Her parents tried to put her off, of course; she was only the heir until a proper male heir was born, they said, and she was only learning business in case she had to inherit and teach her husband, the new Lord Sureau, the workings of their house.

Alright, Adrianne told them, then if that's the case, why weren't they teaching her the family business so she could teach it to her husband when he took over?

They had no answer for this.

Adrianne's business education began the next day, bright and early, under the direction of a tutor, an elderly woman named Riselle. She was strict, stuffy, and boring, and Adrianne complained that if Aveline Sureau got to learn by her father's side, why shouldn't she? Osmond scolded her for her continued complaints, of course. Aveline Sureau got to work with her father because she was obedient and loyal, he finally said, and had already proven herself to be skilled with such things. The argument continued on for so long and in such an exhausting matter that eventually he promised that if Adrianne did her work well under her tutor, and was an obedient daughter in other regards, he would let her, on occasion, work with him.

She wouldn't stop hounding him until he got an obligator to witness the agreement.

She was (almost) a completely different Adrianne after that. She still had that wild stubborn streak, but her father had unwittingly given her exactly what she had always needed: an outlet via which to channel her energies. She flew through her lessons at an astounding pace compared to what her parents and tutor expected of her, even going so far as spending her free time learning what she could from the Entrone library and by talking to any of Entrone's business leaders who would give her the time of day.

And then, out of the blue, her world was shaken. Priscilla was found wounded in her carriage, which was badly damaged, the guards either murdered or fled. The horses, which had been cut free, were nowhere to be found. A robbery, according to the Garrison captain who investigated the case, but of course, in a city like Klessium, the culprits were never found. Priscilla, meanwhile, was rushed home immediately and treated by the Entrones’ doctor, but her injuries never healed right, and she was claimed by infection a few days later.

Her last words to Adrianne were to urge her daughter to marry well and become a proper wife. Adrianne, unable to cope with both her mother’s impending death and her lifelong battle, stormed out of the room.

Adrianne threw herself into her studies twice over after that, hoping to drown herself in work in order to forget her grief and anger. She had loved her mother dearly, though Priscilla’s insistence that she was incapable of inheriting had always hurt. She had learned a world of other things from her mother - like etiquette and dancing - and she had always treasured the times they were able to enjoy together. And now she was gone.

As time passed, though, the pain began to fade, and Adrianne finally began to flourish again. She was able to once again study for the right reasons, and as her grief subsided, she truly began to progress. And so it happened that, around the time she debuted into society, she was permitted – at long, long last – to work by her father's side. She was to remain silent, he instructed her in no uncertain terms, and do as she was told. No more, no less. She was not to speak of business outside her time with him or her time spent studying. Adrianne, thrilled to have finally earned this chance to prove herself in her father's eyes, accepted.

This lasted about two weeks, until the second ball she ever attended.

Her debut, thankfully, was a smashing success. Remembering her father's warnings and her etiquette lessons, Adrianne was able to make polite conversation and mingle amongst her new peer group with ease, enjoying dances from several young men around her age and otherwise having a splendid time. She attended her debut without an official date, of course, instead spending the evening under the watchful eyes of her parents and their Terris steward. Her next ball, however, she would attend on the arm of a young man.

He was only a couple months older than she, and the second son of an up-and-coming house in Klessium politics. His house dealt primarily in construction, and Adrianne just couldn't help herself. They had only made it halfway through the first course at dinner when she finally broke, and began talking business with the young man. What sort of construction did his family do? Did they plan on joining the Sureau alliance, or were they perhaps trying to establish themselves as a new challenger on the scene? Where did they get their materials? How? What did they use? How many contracts did they anticipate finalizing in the next month?

The poor lad spent most of dinner staring wide-eyed at her in lieu of any sort of coherent response, and promptly excused himself from the table as soon as the plates were cleared away. Adrianne was left alone at their table while he danced the night away with, as Adrianne remembers her, some vapid airhead who could barely put two sentences together.

Adrianne's father was furious with her when they heard about the incident. She had broken her word to him, humiliated some poor lordling, and frightened off a good prospective match. Her father banished her from his study, dismissed her tutor, and vowed she would never dabble in a man's trade again.

The next day, Lord Entrone received a letter from the boy's older brother, the heir to that same house, requesting permission to accompany Adrianne to the next ball.

This gave Lord Entrone pause, and he hesitantly accepted the invitation. And much to Adrianne's delight, her second date was far more pleasant than the first. Not only did her escort know what he was talking about, but he was excited to discuss it, and the pair spent all night talking business, even while on the dance floor. By the time he dropped her off at Keep Entrone, they had reached an unofficial business agreement that they presented to their fathers that night.

It was put into writing and witnessed by the end of the week – it had, of course, needed some modifications, having been written by a pair of teenagers, but the spirit of the agreement was the same. Lord Entrone lifted Adrianne's ban on his study, re-hired her tutor, and continued her education in business affairs. There was only one thing she could not seem to convince him of, though: no matter what she said, no matter what she did, he would not accept her as his legal heir. A man would inherit Entrone, he said, and that was that.

And so her social life continued in that manner. There were men who didn't want to attend balls with her at all, and others who enjoyed her company and their business discussions. And while she didn't write any more business proposals at balls, she was still an asset in improving Entrone's relations with several key Klessium houses.

There was one young man in particular who was more interesting than all the rest: one Tristand Izenry. He was the second son of Lord Izenry, but far more intelligent and capable than the first second-son she'd ever been on a date with. He was charming and personable to boot, making their conversations some of the most interesting and enjoyable Adrianne had ever had. And it wasn't too long before she learned that they had more in common than just business and good people skills: Tristand, too, was overlooked and underestimated by his father, despite shining far more brightly than his (as he put it) far less capable brother. He would be Lord Izenry one day, just as Adrianne would see herself made Lady Entrone if it was the last thing she did. The two encouraged each other in their goals, and made a promise that when each of them had taken control of their respective houses, they would become allies and business partners.

Though they never spent enough time alone together to become truly close, Adrianne always regarded Tristand as a friend. Their social circles overlapped often enough that she came to look forward to his presence, and she always enjoyed his company. When her father frustrated her with his refusal to relent and declare her his heir, Tristand's presence always cheered her up, at least somewhat. Surely this was a man who believed in her! If only her father could see her the way Tristand Izenry did.

Time passed, and before Adrianne knew it, it was time to find herself a husband. Many of the lords and ladies of her age group were beginning to pair off, making alliances and forging bonds with every union. But not Adrianne. She made a point to scare off many of the suitors who came knocking after ignoring her since her debut, and many of the gentlemen she had become friends with were having other matches arranged for them. Lord Entrone warned her as time went on that she would not inherit unless she had married a man who would rule the house, but she would not listen. Eventually she would be too old to be considered good marriage material, but still be far younger and more capable than the suitable men within Entrone, and her father would have no choice but to leave the house to her.

He passed away due to health complications when she was twenty-four.

Her feelings over her father's death were complicated. She had always wanted to inherit, but she never wanted her father to die. Though she had loved and looked up to him, he had put her down and brushed her aside far more often than he had actually taught her anything or even spent time with her. She didn't know how to feel. At least, not until the obligator came to review the will. Then, she was furious.

Oh, he had left House Entrone to her alright – with the provision that she could not inherit until she married, and then the House Title would pass to her husband, the new Lord Entrone. If she did not marry within a month's time, the title would pass immediately to his younger brother Conrad. Blatantly incompetent Conrad, who spent more time gambling and womanizing than he did doing actual work. Adrianne couldn't let that happen. And so, for the sake of her house, and for the sake of what was left of her own dream, she chose to marry.

Unfortunately, she had waited far too long to choose a husband. Very few noblemen who would make proper matches weren't already married, and of those who weren't, she had alienated most of them with her intimidating behavior, and the rest were only interested in her as a future business partner – not as a wife. After multiple rejections, she began to lose hope that she would ever save her house.

And then it came: a message from House Izenry, written by Lord Benton's own hand, proposing a match between her and his second son.

Tristand.

Adrianne's heart leapt. This was the chance she had been waiting for! She had faced rejection after rejection, but she finally had the perfect match. Izenry came from a financial house, and Tristand in particular excelled at what his family specialized in. With his knowledge, and the encouragement he always gave her, surely she could make Entrone stronger than ever! She wrote back to Lord Izenry without hesitation, accepting the proposal, and a meeting was scheduled for the following day to finalize the engagement. After all, there was very little time left; the marriage would have to be a rushed one.

She was extremely nervous for the meeting, but somehow kept it together. She took comfort in the fact that it was Tristand who was joining her: the same Tristand who had encouraged her all those years ago, and promised to be her ally. And here he had come, keeping his promise to her in spectacular fashion.

Or so she thought.

He kept his cool, but she could see the emotion in his eyes when he entered the room. He hadn't been the one behind this; he hadn't even known. And the tone with which he praised his father for his choice of a bride made it heart-breakingly clear that he hadn't wanted this at all. He was being forced into it – probably, Adrianne realized, to get him out of Izenry before he caused any trouble – and didn't want her at all. Just like how no one else wanted her.

What had started as the first day of a promising new future was suddenly turned bleak. Of course Tristand wouldn't have wanted this; he wanted to rule Izenry, not Entrone. Well, that was fine with Adrianne. He could leave all the real work to her, though of course there were areas in which she would benefit from his expertise. He needn't worry about ruling a house that wasn't his; she would take care of everything, just as she had always planned in the first place. And once the engagement was finalized, she told him just that.

He wanted to laugh. He didn't, but she could see it in his eyes. He wanted to laugh in her face. All along, everything he had said to her had been a lie. He didn't believe in her at all. He never had. He was just like her father, and now she was stuck with him. She turned away from him without a word, and did not speak to him again until the wedding was over and he was moving into Keep Entrone.

He settled in quickly, and got right down to business. And, of course, didn't have a clue what he was doing. It was no surprise, really; Izenry dealt with finance deals and the purchase and sale of goods, not in a particular material trade like Entrone. Adrianne put out the orders that everything that came out of Lord Entrone's office must be run past her first. Some in the house were skeptical at first, but there was nothing that prevented her from double-checking Tristand's work, and it didn't take long for them to be won over. This went on for about two weeks: he would do the work as best he could, and she would go back and redo it without his knowledge or consent. It wasn't honest, but it kept the house running.

Then one day, she was taking a walk to clear her head when Tristand cornered her, handing her a stack of papers – the very same ones she'd just finished correcting - and demanding to know what was going on. The charade was up, it seemed; he had finally discovered what she'd been up to. He was furious. And of course, the very notion that her actions had kept the house running at all only further incensed him, which wasn't surprising, really: what man wanted to be proven incompetent by the wife he'd laughed at for saying she could perform the very tasks he was failing to accomplish?

For the first time in a long while, Adrianne felt bad for Tristand.

To this day, she still isn't sure how she convinced him to come back into the study with her. But come with her he did, and she spread open a few different documents on the desk to show him. Of course, the fact that she knew exactly where he kept all of these things wasn't exactly good for his mood, but she urged him to let her continue.

The first things she showed him were Entrone's financial ledgers. While she didn't exactly excel at accounting herself, she at least knew enough to see if someone else's work had been done properly. Tristand's work was impeccable so far as she could see, and so of course she hadn't touched that. Read it, yes, but she hadn't changed anything. Surely it would be easy enough for him to believe her when she told him; since he'd done all this himself, he would likely be able to see quite clearly that nothing had been done to it.

Then she showed him other documents, the ones she'd been correcting. The things he had been doing made a certain amount of sense on paper, she explained, but in practice, that wasn't always the case. Hands-on management of a material trade was more than just making sure the numbers lined up, after all. Because she had spent her entire business education learning this exact trade, she had a strong feel for it, and surely they could agree (for once) that someone needed to make sure that Entrone's actions made sense on paper and in practice.

And to her surprise, he actually listened. Well, in a sense, anyways. He still wasn’t about to let her actually do the work she was good at, but given that she had steered the conversation from him about to curse and throw things at her to him actually asking for help, she would take it.

“Next time, would you bring the corrections to me?” he asked her. “Before everyone sees that you had to correct them…” He seemed embarrassed, bitter even, but the request was sincere.

“Since you asked me nicely, I will,” she agreed, keeping her tone perfectly polite. Inside she felt victorious, but since he was actually being reasonable about it, he deserved the same treatment. “But you will need to communicate with me. Bring them to me yourself, or at least let me know you’re done so I can get them done promptly.”

She would have offered to just do that part of it herself, but at the rate he was going, he would likely burn himself out. It probably wouldn’t take long for him to realize it would be easier to just let her handle certain things, and then when he brought it up, it would be his idea, not hers. Men generally were more amenable to ideas they thought were their own, after all, and perhaps the whole thing could be settled without the need for more shouting.

It started much as she had anticipated. Tristand refused to let her just take over that part of the paperwork, and tried to take all the credit for it to boot. Though she didn’t want to just roll over and let it appear to everyone that he had taken full control of Entrone’s affairs, neither did she want to rip the house in half with a power struggle. Whoever came out on top when their feud was said and done, Entrone needed to make it through the ordeal intact.

So instead of simply claiming credit for herself, she made it abundantly clear to everyone beneath her that Lord and Lady Entrone were working together to run the house. It involved conceding that yes, Tristand was in fact doing useful work, but coming out of a succession crisis, it was important that the rest of the house see husband and wife working together for everyone’s greater good.

Tristand, of course, didn’t like this. This was his house now, after all, and he needed to appear strong and competent to the rest of the world. He couldn’t have a woman undermining his image or his authority, even if she was actually helping. Adrianne was so insulted and outraged by his remarks that there was only one course of action to take, and no amount of reining in her temper would help.

She challenged him to a duel. And he laughed in her face.

That only spurred her on, though, fueling her anger and strengthening her resolve to beat him to a bloody pulp as soon as she had the cane in her hand. She kept her cool in the meantime, regarding him with a near-murderous but otherwise calm-faced glare as he laughed himself out. It took him a moment or two beyond that to realize she was serious, though it was clear he still wasn’t taking her seriously. In other words, it was the perfect opportunity.

She made the terms of the duel too good to pass up: if she won, he would have to be a team player, with everything that entailed - supporting one another in public, putting up a united front, and giving credit where credit was due. But if he won, she would obediently fade into the background, supporting him from the shadows while he claimed credit, credibility, and respect for his own work and hers. Tristand, expecting an easy win, readily agreed.

He wasn’t expecting her to be at all competent, let alone good. The duel was over within seconds, a definitive and unquestionable victory for Adrianne.

She did, however, refrain from beating him to a bloody pulp. Somehow.

The next day, she woke to find an unusual display on one of the side tables in their suite: two crystal vases with a small bowl set between them. The bowl was filled to the brim with small round pieces of obsidian, the sort usually used in various decorative arrangements. Oddly, one of the vases had only one obsidian chip in it, while the other one was empty.

She was still staring at the bizarre setup when Tristand emerged from the dressing-room and explained to her what it was: a scoreboard. Their first duel had not been their last, he promised her, and he wouldn’t lose so soundly next time. Or ever again. They would use the vases to keep track of their victories, and that would be the definitive proof of which of them was the better duelist. Oh, he would abide by the agreement they reached via their first duel, of course - he wouldn’t go back on his word - but that didn’t mean they had to stop dueling. Far from it.

Adrianne actually didn’t mind this at all. It was preferable to shouting, after all, and sometimes Tristand was so bloody frustrating that she needed to swing a stick at him a few times before she could even begin to form a coherent and logical argument to present to him. Dueling became their primary means of conflict resolution: either the results of the argument would be determined by the duel, or else they would literally fight it out before discussing the subject in a rational manner. Sometimes they even talked things out while dueling. From whether or not to sign a particular treaty to what color they should wear to the next ball to who got the last piece of chocolate, they took their differences to the dueling arena to find a solution.

And the more often this happened, the more Adrianne came to enjoy these sessions. Not only was it fun, pure and simple, but it was also the first and most reliable setting in which she could actually get along with her own husband. It was a nice change of pace from all the arguing and the power struggles.

Contrary to his earlier promise, though, Tristand did not manage to win every duel after that - but neither did Adrianne. The number of chips in each vase increased at a steady pace, the levels rising in near lockstep with one another. No matter how hard they both tried, neither party ever managed to accumulate a noticeable lead over the other.

Meanwhile, though, Adrianne’s prediction that Tristand was going to burn himself out were slowly coming true. There simply wasn’t enough time in the day to do what needed to be done, which led to him staying up later and later, until he started falling asleep in the study. But still, he didn’t come to Adrianne for help. Finally, when it got particularly late and he still hadn’t woken up enough to drag himself into bed, she realized that he was never going to ask for help own his own, and marched down to the study in her nightgown to force it on him.

He was sound asleep when she entered, of course, his head resting on a pile of documents that she would have to review and revise tomorrow. In the back of her mind, she found herself hoping he hadn’t been drooling on them. That wasn’t what was important right now, though: what mattered was convincing Tristand that he needed her help and getting him to start going to bed at a decent hour. So without any regard to whether or not she would be waking him up, she grabbed hold of the documents underneath his head and yanked them free. He woke up in time to witness a cascading shower of papers as she flung them across the room and left them to lie where they fell, strewn all over the floor.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, once he had removed a particularly stubborn piece of paper that had been stuck to his face.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” she asked in return. For good measure, she snatched the remaining paper out of his hand and tossed it emphatically over her shoulder. Instead of soaring across the room, it fluttered awkwardly down her side until she batted it away with annoyance. Tristand sniggered, and she just glared down at him.

“Spring cleaning?” he asked. Adrianne just rolled her eyes.

“Of your work schedule, yes. You’re done doing it all by yourself, Tristand. Tomorrow morning, I’m taking over the logistics and worker management. Now go to bed; you look like you’ve been run over by a mistwraith.”

Tristand just gaped at her for a moment, and Adrianne began to wonder if she’d have to challenge him on the spot or even haul him off to bed by the collar of his shirt. Instead, surprisingly, he accepted.

“We’ll talk about it in the morning,” he added with a grumble.

“Good,” she said. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to duel you in my nightgown. Now come on and go to bed.”

Fortunately, he went without complaint, and they both settled in. It would seem they weren’t done though: Adrianne had almost fallen asleep when Tristand’s voice brought her back to wakefulness. Or at least, something close to it.

“... You know, I would feel better about you taking the logistics and worker management if you would explain to me how to do it properly.”

Well that was… different. Was Tristand actually asking for help? Or had she actually fallen asleep, only to dream about having a conversation with him that would never happen in waking life? She definitely thought she was still awake. And here he was, asking for help. For once. If she could encourage that sort of behavior from him, it would make running the house together a lot easier.

“You can watch me do it tomorrow if you want,” she said with a yawn. “I’ll walk you through it.”

She paused, then added, “I’m still going to take over that part of the workload. I’m not handing it back to you as soon as you learn how to do it.”

She heard him shift in the bed, but she remained where she was, staring up at the blackness where the ceiling would be.

“I didn’t ask for it back once I learn it,” he said. “I just want to know how to do it, I want to know what I was doing wrong. I have never had to deal with logistics before. I can crunch numbers but getting the product from one place to another and organizing workers was always someone else’s job.”

“I know. Why do you think I told you I would take over the administration when you got here? You’re good at what you do, but I’ve studied my whole life to take over Entrone’s business specifically. I do know what I’m doing, despite what everyone else seems to think.” Her tone wasn’t hostile, but she couldn’t help but feel frustrated. At least Tristand was finally recognizing that she might just know how to do the job, though, and she didn’t want to lash out and alienate him further when they were actually starting to work things out. In their own bizarre manner, of course, but it was better than nothing.

“You can’t blame them, really,” he said. “Most women are vapid and don’t have more than a few thoughts floating around in their heads at any one time.”

What. She’d attempted to open up to him even a tiny bit and this was what he--

“Most women, that is,” he continued. “I hope you don’t think I meant to put you into that group. I know you’re more than capable of handling the paperwork, but that is how most women are viewed by the men Entrone works with. It’s hard to convince them that a woman actually knows what she’s doing, let alone do business directly and solely with her. Once we convince them you know what you’re doing things will get easier. Until then, every decision made and every contract signed by Entrone will be called into question by even the closest ally. I wanted to protect Entrone from that ridicule.”

What in the world was she supposed to say to that? On one hand, he was acknowledging her ability and referring to them as a team - but on the other, it was hard not to read into his words that he wanted to protect Entrone from her.

“Then we turn it to our advantage,” she said after a moment’s thought, not really wanting to talk about her innermost feelings right now. “We seize opportunities and act while they’re wasting time gawping at us. I’ve dealt with this my whole life, remember. When someone underestimates you, it becomes all the easier to turn the tables on them.” In fact, she had personally taught him that very lesson, but she didn’t feel the need to remind him. After all, judging by the look on his face that day, it wasn’t something he would soon forget.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever used those tactics myself,” he admitted. “but I may have some experience in being on the receiving end of it. If we can turn that into seizing new contracts and opportunities… we could probably even make a bid for Great House eventually. You’ll have to teach me that, too.”

What in the world was going on here? Maybe she really was dreaming. And if she wasn’t, then apparently the middle of the night when they were both exhausted was yet another unexpectedly perfect time to talk out their issues.

“I have a better idea,” she offered through another yawn. “We start going into meetings together. I know the business, and if my presence is as ridicule-worthy as you say, it makes for a perfect distraction.”

It took a very long time for Tristand to respond. Had he fallen asleep? She was about to toss a pillow at him to get a response when he finally spoke up.

“I will have to think about that before I agree to it. There would be a lot of preparation you would need to do.”

“You mean besides the years of my life I’ve dedicated to doing just this?” she snapped, perhaps a little more harshly than she had intended. But she was tired, and Tristand’s response picked at wounds that were still fresh.

“I meant preparations for emotional Allomancers,” he said. “I don’t know how you react to being Soothed or Rioted and I’d like to know that before we go into a tense meeting situation. Distracting them is great, catching them off guard is wonderful, but if they can manipulate us anyway, what would be the point?”

“You mean me. They can’t manipulate you.” She at least appreciated his attempt at tact, though. That was rare enough, between them.

He just sighed. “If I could keep you from being manipulated, too, I would. Sadly, it is not uncommon for potential business partners to bring in emotional Allomancers to test the waters. With some of Entrone’s older allies, it shouldn’t be as much of a problem, but we still need to know exactly how it might affect you.”

Now it was Adrianne’s turn to sigh. “Why do you have to make so much bloody sense this late at night? It’s not fair.” And it galled her to admit it, too.

“I always make sense, you’re just never paying attention.” She couldn’t see him smirking in the darkness, but she could hear it in his voice.

“I paid enough attention to the paperwork, didn’t I?”

“With so much experience in this business, I’d be surprised if you didn’t. I’ve only been doing this a few months. Perhaps we should revisit this conversation when I’ve had as many years under my belt as you have now.”

Adrianne just frowned. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“As smart as you are, I’m sure you can figure it out.”

“Oh, I know. I just wanted to give you a chance to get out of the hole you’re digging for yourself.”

“I never learned that trick, either, but I’ve gotten very handy with a shovel.”

“I noticed.” With that, she took hold of an extra pillow and tossed it right onto Tristand’s face. “Now shut up and go to sleep or neither of us will be good for anything tomorrow.”

“Best idea you’ve had in the last five minutes, I think.” She felt him moving next to her, presumably putting the pillow under his head or at least getting it off his face, and then he was silent. Finally. Once she was sure he wasn’t going to start talking again, Adrianne finally let herself close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

She awoke late the next morning. In Tristand’s arms.

He must have turned to face her while they were talking or moved closer to her side of the bed or something, because this had never happened before, when they purposely slept as far apart as they could without falling off the bed. But yet, there they were. Holding each other. And Adrianne was not entirely sure how to feel about it. So she resolved to extricate herself as quickly as possible, before she caught herself thinking that it felt nice to be held or that he actually looked quite adorable while sleeping or any other stupid nonsense like that.

It was more difficult than it looked, though thankfully, the fact that Tristand was a heavy sleeper certainly helped. What did not help, however, was the fact that in the process of getting caught up in each other’s arms while they were asleep, Adrianne had also got herself caught up in the blankets, so that when she tried to actually get out of bed, she instead found herself tipping over the side and landing on the floor in a startled, tangled heap. And rather more loudly than she would have liked, too.

A moment or two later, she caught sight of Tristand’s head peeking over the edge of the bed at her. “Comfortable down there?” he asked with a laugh.

She just grabbed one of the pillows that had fallen off the bed with her and threw it at him.

“Well I was going to offer to help you up,” he said, and vanished into his dressing room.

Bloody infuriating man, Adrianne grumbled to herself. With that stupid smug face of his. He had never intended to help her up and she knew it. He just wanted the last word, and leaving her to extricate herself from the blankets was an added bonus. But she wouldn’t let him win, not if she could help it. She yanked herself free - or tried to, anyways; it took a few tries and she almost fell down again once or twice in the process - and hurried off into her own dressing room. She could still beat him to the study. Maybe.

She snatched a gown from the wardrobe and threw it on quickly, barely paying attention to the rest of her appearance except to make sure she didn’t look like she’d just thrown something on, and hurried to what was quickly becoming their shared study. He wouldn’t be laughing so much if he left her on the floor and she still made it there before him, now would he!

And he was already bloody there, smiling up at her for all the world as if he’d been there for hours and not just a couple minutes. She found herself wishing she had another pillow close at hand.

“Glad you could join me,” he said, still with that damnable smirk.

She smiled her most vicious smile right back at him and went to go retrieve some documents to bring to the table she had commandeered for checking his paperwork. Unfortunately, she realized a moment later that the ones she needed were the very same ones she had strewn all over the floor last night, and she was forced pick them all up and put them in the right order before she could even begin to work. She tried to ignore Tristand’s satisfied smirk while she set about that task, and then moved her chair so she could work with her back to him for the rest of the day.

That night, as they lay awake in bed, they talked for a couple minutes about the day’s work, but after staying up so late the night before, neither one of them really had the energy for another in-depth conversation, and they fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, Adrianne made sure to get out of bed early, while Tristand was still fast asleep. After dressing hurriedly, she made her way to the den to make a few changes: if they were going to both be doing work, after all, they both needed desks, and though it meant putting up with Tristand’s stupid face for every hour of the day, she would rather be able to keep an eye on him - and setting up shop in the Lord’s own study would add legitimacy to what she was doing.

So she had the servants bring up another desk and chair, just as large and ornate as the ones her father had left to Tristand. Of course, that did mean she had to rearrange the whole study to fit them properly, which she didn’t mind in the least. She wound up arranging the room with the desks at opposite sides of the room, facing each other, with the shelves and cabinets on the far wall between them. It was the only way everything would fit in there.

It also looked, conveniently enough, like a room configured for equals. She briefly considered bolting the furniture to the floor so Tristand couldn’t just have it moved again, but decided that might be going a little too far. Either way, the servants worked quickly, and it wasn’t long before the work was done. By the time Tristand came in for work, she was happily seated at her own desk, eating breakfast.

“Glad you could join me,” she said with a pleasant smile.

Tristand didn’t say anything, choosing instead to fix his tea as if she hadn’t spoken. It took every ounce of willpower she possessed to not smirk at him the same way he had smirked at her yesterday, but somehow she managed.

“How long did all this take?” he asked finally, flipping open the financial ledgers.

“Not long. The servants are quite efficient. The most intensive task was finding another desk and bringing it up.” She frowned at a wrinkled paper - one of them must have stepped on it the other night - and attempted to smooth it.

“And you didn’t think to tell me before you rearranged everything?”

“You were asleep, and I needed space to work. Or did you honestly expect me to handle logistics and worker management from a side table half taken up with doilies?”

“I’m glad you have space to work now, but why did you have to rearrange everything?”

“It was the only way to fit two desks in here,” she explained in her best ‘calm down’ voice. “It’s not as if I reorganized all the files; I just moved the shelves. The contents are all undisturbed.”

“I suppose I can get used to it.” He still didn’t sound pleased.

Adrianne just returned to her paperwork; he could look through the bloody cabinets himself if he didn’t believe her. In the meantime, she had a lot to catch up on, and it felt even better than she had thought it would to finally have something to accomplish on her own. She dove into her work with an enthusiasm she hadn’t felt since before her father’s death, even forgetting to eat lunch in favor of getting things done. It quickly became a regular occurrence - getting lunch was just such a hassle, and there was so much to be done - but eventually, food simply started appearing on her desk. When asked about it, Tristand just mentioned that if she was allowed to force him to go to sleep at night, he was allowed to make sure she ate, and went back to what he was doing without another word.

It would have almost been sweet, if not for the way he said it.

They continued on like that for several days - servants bringing food on Tristand’s order even when he was out of the keep - and everything was mostly fine. And as they both adjusted to the new workload over the next few days, Adrianne was able to shift to handling the rest of the specifics of Entrone’s trade, freeing Tristand to handle the finances, diplomacy, and other affairs that Adrianne honestly had no interest in and was happy to let him keep. With each of them focusing on their strengths, they were able to extricate themselves from the mess Tristand had made trying to run things by himself. At least, that was how Adrianne saw it.

One thing that didn’t change, however, was the fact that he didn’t bring her to any meetings. Had he forgotten about that? It had been late when they discussed it, after all. Or perhaps it just didn’t count because they had talked about it in bed. Neither one of them ever really mentioned their nighttime chats outside of the bedroom, after all. That is, until one day a few weeks later, when his voice startled her out of her work.

“Well, are you coming?” he asked. When Adrianne looked up, she saw that he was dressed to somehow look as if he had gotten ready to go to a meeting and subsequently rolled around the floor of his closet for the past hour.

“Coming where?” she asked by way of reply. “You never mentioned anything about me being invited anywhere.”

“I have a meeting with Goddard Murell this afternoon. You said you wanted to come to meetings with me, and this is probably the best one to start with.”

What? For a moment, Adrianne just stared up at him, uncomprehending. He had actually remembered? He had actually put thought into which meeting to bring her to? Was this really the same Tristand Entrone who could infuriate her with just a look?

Considering he had put all that thought into it and then forgotten to tell her about it, she was willing to say yes.

“Lord Ruler,” she exclaimed, leaping up from behind her desk and tearing out of the office. “How much time do we have?”

“Fifteen minutes before we need to be in a carriage,” she heard him call after her as she hurried down the hall. Well, at least he’d given her plenty of warning. It would take her longer to get downstairs than it would to get changed.

Her hair and makeup were already fine - she never really overdid either of those anyways - so all she really needed to do was change gowns. In all of a few minutes, she had pulled off her day dress and tossed it aside in favor of a stylish but conservative ensemble that was more suited to a boardroom. A simple brooch was all she needed for jewelry, and her hat, gloves, and cloak could all be pulled on as she walked.

By the time she made it to the carriage where Tristand waited for her, every stitch of her clothing was in exactly the place it was supposed to be. It made for an interesting and rather striking contrast when paired with Tristand’s usual rumpled suit. She would have to do something about that; it was disgraceful.

Ready?” she asked, calm and collected and very much acting like she hadn’t practically just run through the keep to get changed in time.

“Of course I’m ready,” he said as they got into the carriage. “I have just spent the last hour preparing.”

Adrianne didn’t bother dignifying that with a response, but she did eye him up and down again, this time with a raised eyebrow and a skeptical expression. They had been married for a few months by this point, but she still found it difficult to believe that it took him that long to put on a rumpled suit. Especially when she could dress herself properly in a fraction of the time. And they said women took an eternity to get ready? Really?

He noticed her eyeing him, of course. “What was that look for?” he asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“No. It isn’t.” He sounded annoyed. Good.

“Is that really how you plan on representing Entrone? Dressed like you slept in your clothes?” She sounded at least as annoyed as he did, but, well, that was how she felt. She had been forced to yield her birthright to him, and this was how he treated it? It was an insult, pure and simple.

"This is how I have always presented myself ," he said, as if he only represented himself. "Everyone expects it now. It is my own way of catching people off guard. None of them expect me to be competent, and then I take all their money. It has never failed me."

“Except you don’t just represent yourself anymore, Tristand. You are the lord of my house, which you have reminded me on a number of occasions,” and it galled her just to speak those words aloud to him, “which means the way you present yourself to society reflects on the rest of us. You say you want to protect Entrone from being ridiculed by hiding me away, yet you dress like you don't give a damn about your position in this house? How does that make any sense?"

"Whether you like it or not, I am the technical legal heir to your house. And I will dress how I like and still get us better contracts than the Entrones have had in a decade."

Tch. Adrianne just glared out the window, unable and unwilling to come up with a response. It was a comfort that he had actually called Entrone her house, but at the same time, he was probably right and she knew it. Tristand was incredible at winning contracts - it was one of the traits she had admired in him when they were nothing more than friends and allies. He could probably show up in what he wore to bed at night and still strike advantageous deals. It was the principle of the matter that frustrated Adrianne: it had been drilled into her by both her parents that in order to properly represent one’s house, one had to look the part of the lord, or the lord’s family. Anything less than perfect was unacceptable. As a girl, she’d even been banned from her lessons for a day for showing up in a slightly wrinkled dress, and the lesson had stuck.

And here she was, married to a man who believed that wrinkles were fashionable. But “it’s the principle of the thing” sounded like a losing argument at this point, so she kept her mouth shut and comforted herself with the idea that maybe she could use this to her advantage. The way they were both currently dressed, she appeared to be taking her position and responsibility far more seriously than he, which could boost her credibility as the true head of house. Though Tristand did have a reputation for being surprisingly competent despite his wardrobe, so that perception would probably only go so far. Still, every bit helped.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, tension hanging thick between them. Tristand was probably feeling incredibly smug, thinking Adrianne had ceded the victory to him. Well, let him think that. It would suit her own purposes just fine.

As they got out of the carriage, it was as if something shifted between them. Their argument wasn’t important right now: there were more pressing matters to attend to, and like the professionals they both were, they wordlessly agreed put aside their squabble for the time being. Undermining each other in an important meeting would only hurt all of Entrone, after all, and they could always pick up the disagreement where they had left off when they got home.

The meeting went swimmingly, praise be to the Lord Ruler. Despite their spat just moments before, Tristand and Adrianne functioned surprisingly well as a team in the boardroom. They came out of the negotiations in an even better position than Adrianne had thought, and she knew that both of them - not one or the other - were equally responsible for the success. You know it too, she told Tristand by way of a knowing smirk as they left the meeting. You should have started bringing me along ages ago. She said nothing out loud, of course. She didn’t need to. Tristand said nothing, which was a wise choice on his part.

After their first success, he of course brought her along on the next outing as well, but it didn’t go near so smoothly as the first. Almost as soon as Adrianne sat down at the table, she suddenly just felt wrong for no reason. She grew testy, and irritable, and no matter what she did she couldn’t manage to focus on a single thing. Predictably, the negotiations quickly turned south for Entrone, which only put her in a fouler temper. What was wrong with her all of a sudden? She was going to lose this deal for sure, and with it, any chance she’d gained to be an equal partner in the running of her own house!

And then, suddenly, Tristand was on his feet. “This meeting is over,” he said, interrupting the other delegate mid-sentence. “Once you're ready to negotiate like gentlemen, you know where to reach me. Otherwise, you might find yourselves suddenly lacking in willing business partners.”

Great. And now she’d ruined the meeting badly enough that he was calling the whole thing off. Just bloody brilliant. She trudged sullenly out of the room behind Tristand, silent and humiliated. She dreaded getting into the carriage, but of course she had to - she couldn’t just walk home. She would just have to brace herself for the confrontation to come. She would have to explain herself, of course, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to. She couldn’t even begin to understand what had happened herself.

But surprisingly, he didn’t seem angry at her.“That was a dirty trick,” he told her, “and I’m not sure I want to do business with them in the future. They may call for another meeting, but I don’t know if they’ll get it. Not with me.”

Wait, what?

“...Excuse me?” Adrianne asked after a moment of confusion. What in the world was he talking about?

“They were using Allomancy to get a better deal. I couldn’t tell which one of them was doing it, but one of them was Rioting you.” He sounded angrier than Adrianne would have expected. It was almost touching, really.

She couldn’t help but groan, sinking further into the corner of the carriage seat where she’d buried herself upon getting in. “Lord Ruler. I should have realized that’s what it was. I knew there was something wrong, I could feel it, but I just couldn’t focus long enough to figure it out.”

Suddenly, she wasn’t sure how to feel. It was a relief, of course, that the souring of the meeting hadn’t been entirely her fault. There was a logical explanation for what had happened. But it was also infuriating that they had successfully manipulated her that extensively. It galled her to think what might have happened had Tristand not been in that meeting. For multiple reasons.

“That one didn’t have a very light touch, but I’m not surprised you didn’t know exactly what was happening. I wonder what else he was trying to Riot. If you were having that hard a time concentrating…” He sighed. “That is a tactic that only the most desperate of men tend to use.”

“And one you’re conveniently immune to,” she said, more to the upholstery on the wall than to him. “I’ll admit, I’m a little jealous.”

“Even without the Allomancy, I would have been able to tell there was something seedy happening. My family spends a great deal of time training the men to detect and attempt to resist the effects of Rioting and Soothing. I would suggest that we look into training you to at least detect it. Especially since that is not the last time we will encounter people like that.”

He had mentioned this before, during that strange, oddly intimate conversation they’d had in the dark. But they seemed to have developed some sort of unspoken agreement to not directly allude to that in the light of day, so she didn’t bring it up. Besides, he was probably thinking the same thing. The other thing she noticed, though, was the way he phrased that last part. That is not the last time we will encounter people like that.

“You mean I’m still coming,” she said, turning to look at him once more. “To the meetings.” The thought that he still wanted her along, even after today, made her far happier than it had any right to. She was Lady Entrone, and she had every right to be at these meetings whether Tristand wanted her there or not. It didn’t do anything to get rid of the smile that was creeping onto her face, though. It was tiny, but it was there, and it wasn’t going away.

Damned thing.

Tristand didn’t point it out though, thank the Lord Ruler. He just shrugged and asked instead, “Why wouldn’t you be?”

“My Father would have taken today as an excuse to ban me from appearing in public ever again,” she said with a shrug of her own. “Whether or not anything that went wrong was actually my fault, he always managed to make it my fault anyways.”

”“Believe me, If it had been your fault, I would have told you. I’m not going to just blame you because the people on the other side of the table had a despicable lack of honor.”

Huh. That was… surprisingly reasonable of him. Then again, Tristand had proven himself able to see sense, at least when he wanted to. It was still strange though, and yet rather relieving, to hear him say that after their constant bickering.

“Glad to hear it,” was all she said. Happy as she was to know that this incident wouldn’t cause any more struggles between them, she was also happy to let the subject rest and spend the rest of the carriage ride thinking of something else.

Tristand was as good as his word though, and spent just as much time seeing that she was taught to withstand emotional Allomancy as Adrianne spent teaching Tristand about the parts of Entrone’s business that he was inexperienced with. It meant she was downright miserable for part of the day, and she didn’t get very good at resisting manipulation, but she at least began learning to better recognize when her emotions were being tampered with.

Life was good for the Entrones - at least, as good as it could get when you were married to a usurper to your rightful title. Adrianne and Tristand had developed a stable, if strange, sort of working relationship in which they were a solid team in public and a functional, if temperamental, pair in private. It was still strange to even think of him as her husband, really. They were courteous to one another at most, slept on opposite sides of the bed, and the most “intimacy” they ever shared was the occasional midnight chat in the dark, though their unspoken agreement to never mention those during the day still held strong.

Eventually, though, an opportunity arose which almost seemed too good to be true - a trade agreement that, while it would involve betraying Izenry, would likely give Entrone the financial success and momentum they needed to actually set themselves up in Luthadel. Tristand was all for it, but Adrianne was suspicious. After all, how did she know he wasn’t just supporting this because it gave him a chance to spite the father who had sold him to Entrone?

He tried to convince her otherwise, of course, but she just couldn’t accept it. It was too convenient that the first chance they got to make a move for Luthadel was also the first good opportunity he had to spite his father. How could Adrianne know for sure which was more important to Tristand and which was a pleasant side-effect? She wanted to believe that he had Entrone’s best interests at heart now, but she knew all too well how much Tristand disliked his father and brother.

But Tristand would not be denied. When she refused to be convinced, he challenged her to a duel - and likely not wanting to leave the fate of their entire house to be decided by the outcome of a single fight, continued to debate the matter throughout the match. It wasn’t until he finally admitted out loud what a good team they made that she was finally convinced. They worked amazingly well together, he said, and with the two of them at the helm, their bid for Luthadel could actually be a success - but only if they took that leap in the first place, and only if they were both equally committed to the cause. Adrianne, satisfied that his intentions really were coming from the right place, finally conceded the debate and agreed to go forward with the plan.

She lost the duel too, but Tristand was too satisfied over winning the Great Luthadel Debate to be too smug about that.

They implemented the plan almost immediately after coming to an agreement, and predictably, Izenry was furious at the betrayal. But just as Tristand had said, it was a massive success, propelling Entrone upward and upward with better and better contracts, which in turn finally led to the big break they needed to get into Luthadel: a contract with the Canton of Resource. It wasn’t as huge as the ones held by Great Houses, of course, but it was a long-term agreement, and the prestige it brought was exactly what they needed. This time, there was no debate. Adrianne and Tristand agreed with no discussion necessary that it was time to move House Entrone to Luthadel.

That, of course, was easier said than done. But between Tristand’s financial acumen and Adiranne’s deft hand managing the logistics, the move went about as smoothly as it could have. The biggest bump in the road they encountered was, surprisingly, finding a suitable home for themselves. They rejected a number of manors and townhouses for various reasons, including one that didn’t have a study that would fit both of their desks and another with a laughably small training area, but at last they found a manor in Fellise that they both loved, which they bought on the spot - after testing it out with a celebratory duel, of course.

The Entrones have just recently gotten themselves settled into their new home, but there’s still a lot of work to do. After all, the Great Houses didn’t ascend overnight.